A network of computing devices uses network identifiers to identify communication ports by which the computing devices connect to the network. The network identifiers are often long, alphanumeric strings. The type of network identifier used depends upon the type of network. For example, an Ethernet network uses media access control (MAC) addresses, while a fibre channel network uses world wide port name (WWPN) addresses.
An element management system (EMS) manages one or more devices on a network. Each device can be physical or virtual and is called a network element. Each network element can include one or more devices connected to the network by a communication port, which is identified by a network identifier. The EMS can track network identifiers of the network elements, and can report the network elements to a user.